Browse by Artist: BROWN, CHRIS

Artist:	BROWN, CHRIS
Title:	Talking Drum
Label:	POGUS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	POGUS 21034

"Binaural motion recordings composed as a dialogue of distances. Live recordings of music for electronic network music ensemble juxtaposed with location recordings of traditional music and environmental soundscapes. Made in Bali, the Philippines, Turkey, Europe, Cuba and America 1991-99. This compilation/composition documents nearly a decade of work that began with the recording of dense sonic environments, both 'natural' and urban. Talking Drum is an interactive installation made with four networked laptop computers programmed to explore cyclical polyrhythms in large acoustic spaces. While the performance of the entire system is synchronized by one computer, each computer station generates independent results using genetic-programming algorithms which are affected by acoustic musicians' performances. Each station in the space "grows" its own rhythmic response to the situation, like similar plants growing differently in adjustment to their locations in an environment. The musicians improvise with the rhythms, interacting with the response of the computers they play next to, and the whole is a quartet of these human-machine duets."

Artist:	BROWN, CHRIS
Title:	Lava
Label:	TZADIK
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	TZ 7002

"Chris Brown, San Francisco based composer, pianist, and electronic instrument builder, studied composition with William Brooks, electronic music with Gordon Mumma and computer music with David Rosenboom. His music includes pieces for solo instruments with interactive electronics, and improvisational ensemble works... Lava describes a primordial state of flux, the transmutation of one material into another through a streaming of intensely concentrated energy. 'Lava' is written for brass quartet, four percussionists and 4-channels of electronic sound generated by a computer controlled signal processing system. Aspects of the physical structure of a volcano are applied to control musical elements, creating their own musical grammar. The fluid motion of burning lava streams are modeled by a score that describes all musical elements as states of change: there are no fixed pitches, loudnesses or timbres, only directions of pitch, timbre, and dynamic motion... The electronic sounds are all created by live sampling from the acoustic sounds of the instruments, and there are no synthesizers or previous recordings involved. The change from a solid (earth) into a liquid (lava) is modeled by this transformation of the acoustic sounds into electronic sounds that create an enveloping musical landscape." This is a fantastic 60 minute piece, in a very organic electroacoustic vein.

Artist:	BROWN, CHRIS
Title:	Rogue Wave
Label:	TZADIK
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	TZ 8014

"Chris Brown is a San Francisco based composer who stands firmly in the tradition of West Coast innovators like Terry Riley and James Tenney. Rogue Wave, his first CD in almost a decade, is one of his best -- a startling retrospective spanning over twenty years of activity. Six dynamic pieces featuring a wide range of sound sources and compositional styles, from angelic choirs of electronically altered pianos, to hardcore hiphop transmissions and polyphonic noise symphonies. This important new release places Brown at the forefront of new electronic composition, and finally sheds long overdue light on an important innovator whose work has been unjustly marginalized for years."

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